Monday, June 27, 2011

Calling all artists...

In celebration of the upcoming release of Four Hundred Days by L Carroll, the second book in the Lor Mandela Series, we are launching a Creature Drawing Contest.

We are asking readers to show their love for the Lor Mandela series by bringing life to the creatures in this series. We are inviting artists to participate and win

First place prize package: $25 iTune Gift Card and a SIGNED copy of Four Hundred Days.

Second place prize: A Signed copy of Darkest Mercy by Melissa Marr.

Meet the Creatures:(L Carroll has provided scenes that best describe the following characters)

1.Lortu:

Lortu is the thin, yet muscular, grey-skinned leader of the Lortus Clan of Shadow Dwellers. Here is his description straight from the first book, DESTRUCTION FROM TWINS:

On the other side of the river, the room's walls were alive with dancing reflections of the water and flickering glints of light from the torches that lined them.

Suddenly, something about the shadows became abnormal. A section toward the center of the wall started to take shape and form. Quickly, and quite seamlessly, a human-like creature emerged from the shadows. It was a thin, yet muscular man wearing only a tattered animal skin which wrapped around his waist and hung nearly to his knees. His shoulder length hair twisted and weaved out of the shadows, gradually brightening from a gloomy bluish black to pure white. It floated around as if it had a mind of its own.

Even in the dim light, and from easily thirty feet away, Maggie could see that this mysterious creature's eyes were either white, or a very pale, icy blue.

As the last bit of him separated from the shadowy wall, he leaned over so that his knuckles were almost on the ground and then broke into a phenomenally fast gallop across the bridge.

2.Tabbit:

A playful, magical creature, Tabbit is the typical Shadow Squanki. Though she can fade in and out of shadow, she prefers to observe her surroundings by melting into whatever solid object she happens to be near. As she dissolves, her body, clothing, and hair take on the appearance of the object, camouflaging her like a chameleon. Her big buggy eyes are the only part of her body that remains visible. Here is a more complete description of Tabbit:

Just a few seconds had passed when a demure fairy-like creature, dressed in a cropped blue top and a long, bright yellow skirt bounded around the corner...

Tabbit was no taller than a small child and grinning ear to ear. Her big blue eyes were wild with anticipation...

She bobbed her head up and down, causing her pure white wisps of long, wild hair to turn and twist strangely—almost as if they were alive...

“Yep!” She popped her arm up to a salute and pushed out her bare bulgy brown tummy. “Me know whats to do!”

3.Rynolt:

The rynolt is not a creature you’d want as a pet! Imagine what your mom would say if you brought one of these guys home and asked if you could keep it:

There was a faint rustling in the mangled trees, and then a loud crash as an enormous two-headed creature burst out and thundered onto the meadow.

The creature turned back toward the dark forest and let out a deafening shriek. Slowly, it paced back and forth in front of the twisted trees.

In the piercing starlight, Maggie could see the massive, frightening animal quite clearly. It was unlike anything she'd ever seen or heard of—a huge, mythical-looking beast with a thick, muscular body, resembling an enormous horse, but at least twice a horse's size. It was black and scaly with powerful, long, prancing legs, and a sleek, full, spiked tail. At the top of each swaying reptilian neck was an oblong, hooded head, similar to a king cobra's.

It turned, giving Maggie a full view of one of the heads. It had creepy, glowing, silver slits for eyes, an enormous mouth and gleaming, long, sharp, dripping fangs that gnashed wildly at the hazy air.

4.Solom Warrior:

This is a new clan of Shadow Dweller introduced in book #2, FOUR HUNDRED DAYS:

At that moment, a strange orange light began surging throughout the entire hall; it seemed to be coming right out of the walls.

“Solom,” Mikil gasped, both excitement and fear evident in her voice.

Everyone else was so occupied in trying to pinpoint the source of the strange illuminations that no one noticed her drop to her knees in a humble bow.

“Glaron! Get everyone dat is not Noble DOWN!” she shouted. “Dey’ll keel you if you are steel standing!”

Bridgette didn’t hesitate. The warning was enough for her and she quickly dropped into the same position as Mikil. As she did, the glow intensified, and then gathered and formed what looked like hundreds of tiny orange flames flickering on the walls of the room. Within seconds, the flames condensed even more and then transformed into sets of haunting, pupil-less amber eyes.

“Get down!” Mikil shrieked again, and this time Glaron listened and lowered to his knees.

The walls of the foyer began to ripple and distort, darkening as they waved unnaturally. Dozens of large, black, bare feet started to materialize at the floor, followed by long, thin black legs. Suddenly, and with a strange swishing pop, creature after creature slinked out of the shadowy mass and moved further into the hall, eyeing the Nobles and weaving their heads side to side as they did. These beings were unlike anything Bridgette had ever seen before, and seemed rather like what one would witness in a demonic nightmare. They all stood at least seven feet tall—even the women—and had pure black skin. In fact, the only things on them that weren’t as dark as night were their eerie orange eyes, the long golden loin cloths worn by the men, the short golden toga-type dresses worn by the women, and the jagged pewter daggers they held out in front of themselves. Perhaps the most startling feature however, was the thick black scrolling ram’s horn on either side of their heads, which made their heads oddly disproportionate to the rest of their bodies.

To Enter:

•Draw one (or more) of the creatures based on their description above.

•Leave a link to your drawing in the comment box.

Extra:

•Tweet "Check out my entry in the #FourHundredDaysContest @StuckinBooks, http://tiny.cc/b61pj win SIGNED books and more"

•Follow this blog to receive contest updates.

•Facebook about the contest.

•Blog about the contest.

•Grab 400 Hours to Four Hundred Days button and plug into your blogs sidebar.

Please leave a link to each.

Please read the Four Hundred Days Creature Drawing Contest Rules and Regulations before you enter.

Contest Ends July 15th, 2011 at 11:59 pm

*You could also participate in our sister contest "Four Hundred Days Character Drawing Contest" Hosted by WovenStrands.